Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Medienwissenschaft

Kyle Stine: Circuit Complexity and Critical Theory, 1985

In Kooperation mit dem Forschungskolloquium von Prof. Dr. Axel Volmar der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
  • Wann 10.07.2024 von 18:00 bis 20:00
  • Wo Medientheater Raum 001 Georgenstraße 47
  • Name des Kontakts constantin.matti.roth@hu-berlin.de
  • iCal
The year 1985 marked a turning point for both the area of high technology and the field of critical theory, signaled by two events in the summer of that year. The first was the publication of one of the most influential critical works of the past half century, Donna Haraway's "A Manifesto for Cyborgs," which came out in the April 1985 issue of the Socialist Review. The second was the release of the key component spurring the boom in personal computer sales over the ensuing decade, Intel's 80386 microprocessor, the final design for which was taped out in July 1985. This talk reflects back on these two events, in their interrelations, to consider how a pivotal problem of design affected the creation of new technologies and their understanding. Drawing on technical reports from Intel and unique archival papers on Haraway's influential essay, I show how the design gap for integrated circuits, the lagging of conceptual frames behind those of technical reality, which was a practical problem whose implications were simultaneously sensed and expressed in the work of critical theory, opened a decisive and widening gulf between the human designer and the design task that presages many of the questions arising in our present moment surrounding the celebration and fear of AI.